Christmas Trees

Hello,
I'm new to the forum but just watched the Christmas episode and wondered if you would please explain something for me. Please correct me if I'm wrong but the show said that we have angels on the top of Christmas trees as Victoria and Albert were German and could not use the flag. But if they introduced the tradition of Christmas trees to Britain with angels on, when were they topped with flags? Also having watched the Christmas special of Victoria and admittedly using that as a reference please can you explain why the trees were hung from the ceiling?
Thank you in advance. Karen.

I can't find the exact research that lead to this fact, so I've poked an elf or two and hopefully someone might be by in a while to explain further. However, off the top of my head I'd suggest the following:

While it's often stated that V&A "introduced" xmas trees from Germany, that's not strictly true. Indeed, I think QI was careful to state that they "popularised" them. As I understand it, xmas trees were already a thing in the UK before V&A were on the scene, but weren't as massively popular as they are today. It was a picture of the royal couple decorating their tree published in a popular periodical that really ignited interest among the wider population in having an xmas tree.

So I guess the answer to your first question would be that, before V&A, fewer people tended to have xmas trees, but those that did would put a Union Jack on top of it.

Thank you for your very fast response. That does make sense...we used to have an angel, then a star and for the past few years we've put a snowman at the top of the tree! It's really interesting how traditions adapt over time and how they can be different for every family. Thank you again, Karen.

Angels, stars, etc are just a modern fad in Cloggieland. We used to have (and often still do) what you see in the picture, a christmas tree top.
Haven't come across those in the UK, but that may have been a local (Northumberland) aberration.

Could well be. Since I never saw one in the UK I could 't ask what it was called, and my otherwise great N-E dictionary gives the 'top' option in relation to yule trees.
Better contact them for their next edition. Ta, Alf :-)

We had a variety of tree toppings. An angel, a star and a thing exactly like what Yorz has shown. They took it in turns to surmount our main tree. Perhaps my parents learnt that when they spent several years in Germany.